An unloaded .45 caliber Colt M1911 pistol waits to be introduced to the shooting line during TJ Johnston's AllSafe Basic Handgun Class at Burro Canyon Range in Azusa. Participants can try both revolvers and semiautomatics, in a wide variety of calibers, from .22 to the big .44 Magnum. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Pie tins are pierced from the pistol work of four students from TJ Johnston's AllSafe Basic Handgun Class at Burro Canyon Range in Azusa. The pie tin exercise introduces the student to shooting under pressure as Johnston sounds a horn and counts off five seconds. The student has two 5-round magazines and two five-second chances to fill the tin with holes. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Volunteer instructor Natasha Kerllenevitch of West Los Angeles wears an ammunition pendant she made with a crystal bead as the bullet. Kerllenevitch is a returning volunteer, helping students with their shooting skills at TJ Johnston's AllSafe Basic Handgun Class at Burro Canyon Range in Azusa. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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TJ Johnston explains the law and self defense in your home as part of the classroom instruction phase of his AllSafe Basic Handgun Course in Orange. The orientation session concludes with a lengthy discussion of the laws governing firearms, and how they effect your ability to use a firearm for self defense. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

We can be like Piers Morgan on CNN and yell at one another about gun control or we can learn and figure out this conundrum together.

After sitting down in December with the family of one of the victims in Orange County's worst mass killing, I visit a shooting range deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Like a majority of Americans after the deaths in Newtown, Conn., I want change. But the more I learn, the more difficult it becomes to figure out exactly what that change should be.

Before I can say, "one Mississippi," I squeeze off three rounds from a .45-caliber, semi-automatic pistol. Three nearly half-inch holes instantly appear in the cardboard torso of a "bad guy."

Thirty-two people – the largest class ever taught by NRA board member and Placentia resident TJ Johnston – shoot or wait to shoot. They are about evenly divided between men and women, and include an auto mechanic, a computer expert, a lawyer, a doctor.

As my bullets kick up puffs of dirt in the rock- and chaparral-covered rise behind the targets, gunfire echoes throughout Burro Canyon Shooting Park. Like the diverse crowd, the nonstop noise reflects the complexity of our nation's debate over gun control.

On the range next to us, there is the unmistakable sound of automatic weapons. An expert tells me one gun is a .223, otherwise known as an AR-15. Yes, that's the gun used in several mass shootings and on President Obama's list to ban.

Unlike the semi-automatic weapon used in Newtown, this automatic fires 13 rounds a second. You can't legally buy it in California, but under certain conditions you can own and shoot one, and that stuns me.

As I load a gun magazine for R. Claire Friend, a Newport Beach psychiatrist, Friend tells me the gun debate isn't about guns, "It's about liberty."

•••

It's 7 a.m. on a recent Saturday – days before a former police officer is suspected of killing a couple in Irvine and shooting at several officers, wounding two and killing one.

There is standing room only at Johnston's AllSafe Defense Systems class in Orange. He asks the students to say why they're here – and why now.

Nearly all talk about protection. "I have a wife and two daughters and no defense in the house."

"I'm terrified of someone breaking into our home."

Still, the overarching theme is concern over regulation coupled with a belief that if you don't act soon, you may be unable to purchase a firearm and ammunition.

"The government is taking away guns from good people," one man says, "and leaving them with bad people."

To me, the statement rings hollow. While regulation certainly is looming, there is no serious threat to being able to purchase a wide variety of guns and ammo for home defense, hunting or sport shooting.

After I mention who I am, some thank me for my columns. Others voice deep distrust of the media. With half-truths stretched into falsehoods by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Fox News' Sean Hannity, it's no wonder.

While we disagree on some things, perhaps we agree on the most important thing – truth.

•••

For the next two hours, Johnston, an NRA-certified instructor for instructors, focuses on the why's, what's and how to's of handguns. Pulling a trigger isn't simply point and shoot. Knowing what firearm is right for you is critical.

Privately, Johnston tells me that some stores that sell guns lack expertise. He mentions two elderly women who wanted something for home defense and were sold a shotgun. "Handling a shotgun and the recoil," Johnston says his voice trailing off, "well ..."

Johnston gets his students' attention, warning, "Every round you fire has a lawyer attached to it."

Johnston hammers home that the law states you only can use deadly force "if you can't escape immediate and unavoidable danger of death or great bodily harm."

"Chasing someone down the stairs doesn't do it."

Rocker and NRA board member Ted Nugent aside – and, Ted, I love "Stranglehold" – there aren't any so-called gun nuts here. The emphasis is less on shooting than safety.

At the range, instructor Ed Wolff echoes Johnston's point when one man asks where he can find an indoor range with 75 feet of shooting distance. "Heck," Wolff says, "at 75 feet, you don't have to fight. You can run."

To Johnston and his AllSafe team, handguns aren't much use after about 21 feet. Still, Johnston points out that 21 feet is plenty for home defense, asking, "What's the size of your average room?"

The real safety issue at home, he says, is less about the model of gun than the type of ammunition. Some bullets shatter bone, punch through several layers of drywall and keep going – even if there's another human on the other side of the wall.

But ensuring you have the right equipment, as instructors call guns and ammo, is only part of the responsibility of a gun owner. Failure to safely store – lock away – guns can result in criminal liability, Johnston points out, especially if a minor is involved.

Still, that's not the toughest thing about handling guns, Johnston says. "The hardest part of shooting is holding the gun steady when you're pulling the trigger."

Technically, Johnston's spot on. But from where I stand, there's at least one more very difficult challenge: Never shoot in anger.

•••

The first person I meet in Burro Canyon is a woman wearing pistol earrings. The second is a woman wearing a necklace holding a bullet cartridge. The other week, I visited the Costa Mesa gun show and saw several men in combat-style boots and wearing camouflage with guns strapped to their backs.

It's easy to dismiss such attire as those of what some call gun freaks. But let's remember that while such items reveal a passion, we all travel through different passions in a single week. The woman with the necklace is a dental hygienist.

Natasha Kerllenevitch asks if I'm here because of what she calls "the gun hysteria." I nod and brace myself for a lecture echoing some emails I received after calling for change in the wake of Newtown.

Kerllenevitch smiles, shakes my hand and says, "Thank you for coming. Thank you for finding out what's really going on."

I stare at four cutouts: three bad guys, one hostage. I pick up a Ruger .22, slap in the magazine, line up the sights, hold my breath and gently squeeze the trigger.

The bullet hurtles toward the target at more than 1,000 feet per second, nearly the speed of sound. Faster than cooling tempers.

Next: The man behind the trigger.

David Whiting's column appears four days a week; dwhiting@ocregister.com.

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